GOALS from Paul McGowan and Graham Carey earned the Buddies victory as the Edinburgh side slipped to second-bottom in the SPL table.

GRAHAM CAREY scored a goal of the season contender as St Mirren defeated Hearts in tonight's Clydesdale Bank Premier League match in Paisley.

The two sides will contest the Scottish Communities League Cup final next month - and Danny Lennon's side struck a psychological blow ahead of that contest with this comfortable victory.

Paul McGowan netted from the penalty spot after three minutes and Carey's impressive breakthrough extended their lead on the stroke of half-time.

Saints made a good start to the match and earned two early corners, the first of which was headed behind by Darren Barr.

Barr was involved in the next corner too and this time he was adjudged to have felled Lee Mair, resulting in referee Kevin Clancy pointing to the spot.

McGowan stepped up to take the resulting kick and duly dispatched the ball past goalkeeper Jamie MacDonald, who dived the wrong way.

Jeff Holmes/SNS Group

Paul McGowan celebrates his opener for St Mirren against Hearts with Paul McGinn.

Hearts responded at the other end and Craig Samson had to parry away Jamie Walker's fizzing shot on the angle.

Barr received the first booking of the match for carelessly fouling Carey before David Ngoo worked Samson with a low shot from the edge of the box.

However, it was the hosts who looked the more likely to add to the scoring and Sam Parkin should have done better when he met Carey's delivery.

On the stroke of half-time, St Mirren did manage to double their lead and it came in stunning fashion; Carey looping a shot over the helpless MacDonald from 25 yards out.

Jeff Holmes/SNS Group

Danny Wilson and a Hearts team-mate are in the wars against St Mirren.

Hearts boss John McGlynn introduced John Sutton and Dylan McGowan in place of Ardvydas Novikovas and Barr for the start of the second half.

McGowan headed wide from Walker's corner and the striker had a big shout for a penalty when he was hauled down in the box by Mair, however Clancy ignored the appeals.

Carey could not beat MacDonald with a second strike from distance on 56 minutes and Hearts had their best chance of the opening hour when Samson parried Walker's shot to Sutton, who could not quite turn the ball into the net.

After offering very little in the way of attacking threat in the first half, the double substitution at half-time seemed to breath new life into the visitors, although they continued to find scoring opportunities difficult to come by.

Dougie Imrie replaced Lewis Guy for the last 10 minutes and Lennon made a double switch - David van Zanten and Kenny McLean coming on for David Barron and McGowan.

Kevin McHattie had a drive from distance in the final minute of injury-time comfortably gathered by Samson and St Mirren held out to leapfrog their opponents in the table.